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Alan Argondizza of Ithaca, NY, wrote in to share the super cool skateboards that he builds from scratch using sheets of birch plywood cut with a jigsaw and hand-held router, then decorated by hand with paint pens, spray paint, and sharpies. Interested in making your own? Alan's provides an excellent how-to on his site.

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Nick Brewer's looking for support for his documentary on kickstarter:

Last December, in 70 cities across four continents, thousands gathered to celebrate Santacon. There are rules... you must wear a Santa suit, or some other holiday attire, a hat is not enough. Santa has to act like Santa, being jolly, handing out gifts, playing reindeer games, etc.

I decided to build a robot Santa suit for New York's Santacon in 2009. A month and a few hundred dollars later, it was done. The finished product stood almost seven feet tall, featured a box mounted on the chest that activated a voice changer, had Christmas lights around the arms, and a fan for the rocket pack on the back (Robot Santa doesn't need reindeer). The whole thing went over really well.

This year, myself and some friends are going to build a better robot Santa costume, film the building process, and then Santacon itself, for a short documentary in HD.

A portion of the funds will go directly to building the robot itself, but a large chunk is devoted to equipment and crew costs. Anybody who is forced to spend a day surrounded by thousands of very loud Santas while holding a heavy camera deserves some compensation. Same with the editor, who will have to use breakneck speed to finish the film before Christmas.

More:

• Knitted Santa Motorcycle Helmet
• Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Santa Claus Machines
• HOW TO - Make a Halloween hangman (Dancing Santa hack)
• Holiday Project: Santa Peanut

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Yaskawa-kun is a Japanese robot that serves ice cream, and even has a twitter account. Now I'm hungry! [via Laughing Squid]

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Knifemaker Scott Roush (aka Makers Market seller Big Rock Forge) first put me on to the work of Arizona bladesmith Tai Goo. Forging a knife out of a railroad spike is an old blacksmith trick, and lots of folks will sell you lower quality "tourist grade" RR spike knives as souvenirs, but Tai Goo is widely regarded as the master of the form. Besides his evident skill, Tai Goo is a minimalist. He practices an art called "neo-tribal knifemaking" that involves using as few power tools as possible. [Thanks, Scott!]

More:

• "Primitive" knife knapped from fiber optic glass
• How-To: Make decorative "mosaic" pins for knife, tool handles
• Brooklyn knifemaker talks shop & process
• How-To: Mount a knife blade in an antler without glue
• Book Review: Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop
• DIY knife-making forge

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